Savor Summer with Affordable Family Fun in Golden

Golden offers ample entertainment for families and is filled with a variety of activities to help you savor summer.  Golden features all the fun of a mountain town without the drive up I-70 – perfect for a quick adventure with kids no matter where you are coming from in the Denver Metro area.   Our favorite type of summer escape – fun, affordable (or free) and nearby.  What’s not to love?

Here are some of our top kid-friendly summer activities in Golden:

1. Dazzle and inspire at the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum – With shiny gems that dazzle, fossils to educate, and even a moon rock to inspire, the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines definitely rocks! Free admission.
2. Ride the Rails at the Colorado Railroad Museum – Ride the Rails is the perfect multi-generational activity. Bring along grandma and grandpa to catch a ride on one of the museum’s steam or diesel locomotives in passenger cars from different eras in Colorado railroad history or experience the uniquely Colorado Galloping Goose.
3. Explore and experience Clear Creek – Just off Washington Avenue and adjacent to Parfet Park, Clear Creek offers wooded walking paths, perfect picnic spots, scenic and historic bridges, bronze sculptures and babbling of the creek and the beauty of the foothills, as well as the professional kayakers and fly-fishermen who flock to the area. Don’t miss the twisting slide next to the Washington Avenue Bridge. 
4. Step back in time at Clear Creek History Park – This makes a perfect addition to your Clear Creek outing. Your kids will never know they’re getting a history lesson when you walk into the Clear Creek History Park.  With costumed interpreters offering a glimpse of pioneer life in the 1880s, you can check out the one room schoolhouse and frontier cabin, as well as the chicken coop and heritage gardens.
5. Buckets of water fun– Golden’s Splash Water Park is the perfect alternative to the major water theme parks. While still filled with twists and turns, the park offers a more relaxed atmosphere and scaled back thrills that will delight the kiddos without taking such a big bite out of your wallet.
6. Check out bikes from Golden’s new Bike Library – Beginning in late June, the whole family can check out free bikes at Golden’s new Bike Library at the Golden Visitor Center. Rides under two hours will be free while daily rentals will be a nominal fee. Pedal the Clear Creek paths and soar through downtown Golden!
7. Take in Colorado at Golden’s City Parks and Surrounding Open Space – A good book, a picnic blanket, gorgeous mountains, fresh air, a hike and a nap under the trees. Who says you have to pay admission to enjoy summer? Whether you want a kid friendly hike to the top of North Table Mountain where the vistas are fabulous or you’d prefer to cuddle up on a picnic blanket and read at Lyons Park, Golden’s got it all.
8. Cowboys & Dinosaurs – For a cowboy and dinosaur themed outing, start at Dinosaur Ridge, where you can run along in the great outdoors looking for dinosaur tracks, and afterwards, head up Lookout Mountain to celebrate Colorado’s most famous Westerner at the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave.
9. Get in touch with the natural world at the Lookout Mountain Nature Center and Preserve – Teach your kids to respect and love natural ecosystems with interactive exhibits of the flora and fauna. Kids will also enjoy the hands-on playroom and observation room.  You’ll feel a world away, but appreciate the interconnection of our ecosystem.
10. Reach new heights at indoor climbing walls – Burn some kiddo energy at one of Golden’s indoor climbing walls at Earth Treks Climbing Center or the Golden Community Center. Earth Treks boasts 28,500-square-feet of climbing, including bouldering and roped climbing. Kids can also participate in lessons or camps. The climbing wall in the Golden Community Center offers a place for beginners to learn top rope climbing and boulder skills, and advanced climbers to keep their skills polished with climbing equipment available for check-out, and climbing classes.

Author: Amber Johnson

Amber is the founder and editor of Mile High Mamas, travel writer and former columnist for The Denver Post. She is a passionate community builder and loves the outdoors. She has two awesome teens and is happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin.